Client News
Kendallville Middle School teachers honored for outstanding Disability Awareness Month campaign
KENDALLVILLE, Ind. – Two special education teachers at Kendallville Middle School, Brooke Cain and Tami Housholder, were honored at the annual Conference for People with Disabilities for organizing and implementing their school’s 2009 Disability Awareness Day, conducted during March Disability Awareness Month. This outstanding event earned both teachers a Community Spirit Award from the Indiana Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities.
Kendallville Middle School’s 2009 Disability Awareness Day included a school-wide essay contest, community speakers and a wheelchair basketball game. Cain and Housholder’s hard work has evolved from five lesson plans and 30 volunteers to 20 lesson plans, more than 50 volunteers and a school-wide event where students learn to accept the differences in all people.
Activities for 2009 Disability Awareness Day also included raising more than $2,000 to help a local fifth-grade student obtain a service dog. In addition, students wrote approximately 100 letters to their state senators to support a law permitting service dogs in all public buildings.
Each March, the Governor’s Council facilitates Disability Awareness Month by providing free resource materials to help Hoosiers conduct awareness activities in their local communities. Materials include information and activity packets, with topics ranging from planning disability-focused art contests to increasing awareness of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in businesses, as well as theme-specific items such as posters and bookmarks.
The Council began recognizing individuals and organizations for outstanding Disability Awareness Month campaigns in 2006 as part of the Community Spirit Awards program, which also recognizes disability advocates in a second category—Distinguished Leadership. Winners are rewarded for their efforts to ensure that people with disabilities have the opportunities, support and access they need to become fully included in society. Recipients are honored at the Governor’s Council’s annual conference, which provides a unique forum for presenting a wide array of information on both local and national issues that impact the disability community.
# # #
The Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities, a federally funded state agency, works to change Indiana public policy so Hoosiers with disabilities can live independently, work productively and be included fully in community life.
As part of its efforts, the Council works in partnership with disability-related organizations and sponsors many initiatives that contribute to attitude and system transformation. These organizations work statewide to enhance the lives of people with disabilities.